Site Mobile Navigation

Argentina Enacts Law on Broadcasters

RIO DE JANEIRO — Argentina enacted a controversial law on Saturday that gives the government more control over the broadcast media, handing a victory to the president and her husband, the country’s former leader, who have blamed media coverage they call biased for many of their political woes.

After more than 19 hours of debate, the Senate approved the media bill early Saturday morning, by a vote of 44 to 24, without modifications. President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner had proposed the bill to replace a dictatorship-era law that allowed the concentration of media power in the hands of a few companies. The government said the changes, which include forcing companies to shed some of their media outlets, would diversify the public airwaves.

Mrs. Kirchner signed the bill into law later in the day.

While many media experts have said the old law was outdated and in need of reform, analysts say the move by the Kirchner government seemed intended to give the executive branch significant discretion in the regulation of broadcasters.

Carlos Lauria, senior program director for the Americas at the Committee to Protect Journalists, said the new rules could restrict freedom of expression, in particular a provision that gives the president the authority to appoint most members of a new broadcast regulatory body.

That group will be in charge of granting new licenses, and some analysts fear that allies of the Kirchners will be given an unfair advantage in bidding as media companies are forced to give up their licenses.

“There is an attempt by democratically elected leaders across the political spectrum to marginalize the institutions of democracy, including the press, to restrict critical coverage and control the flow of information,” he said.

The passage of the bill is a victory for the Kirchners over the country’s largest media conglomerate, Grupo Clarín, which owns the biggest newspaper and important television properties.

Néstor Kirchner, the former president and Mrs. Kirchner’s husband, has been battling Clarín for more than a year over what he considers unfair coverage of recent congressional elections and of the government’s long battle with the country’s farmers over export taxes.

The media law will divide up the airwaves, giving a third of broadcast licenses each to private companies, state broadcasters and not-for-profit organizations.

It will also set quotas for how much time radio and television broadcasters need to set aside for government-sponsored programming.

Clarín has objected to the requirement for broadcasters to give up some licenses within a year, saying it will force the company to sell off assets at fire sale prices.

While Grupo Clarín’s dominant media position would be unlikely to pass muster with American or European regulators, many analysts saw the Argentine government’s push to win swift approval of the bill as a political move designed to shore up support within the Peronist Party before members of a new Congress are seated Dec. 10.

Mr. Kirchner, who ran in June for a seat in Congress, lost significant political power when he came in second. He resigned the next day as head of the Peronist Party. The Kirchners’ allies currently hold a majority in the legislature, an edge they will lose when the new Congress convenes.

As the media bill was being debated last month, tax agents raided the offices of the newspaper Clarín after it ran an article accusing a government agency of improperly granting a farm subsidy. The government later said the raid had been a mistake.

Gustavo Vittori, president of the Association of Argentine Journalistic Entities, said many media outlets were “in favor of opening the industry to more voices.” But he said: “What we are questioning is the engineering of the reform. It is interventionist.”

Mr. Vittori said that because of the number of broadcasting licenses, the law will effectively limit the ability of a media company to have a national radio or television network. The government, however, will be able to have national radio and television networks and will control important popular programming, as a result of the state’s recent takeover of the television rights to professional soccer.

Charles Newbery contributed reporting from Buenos Aires.

A version of this article appears in print on October 11, 2009, on page A8 of the New York edition with the headline: Argentina Enacts Law on Broadcasters. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe